1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the treatment of rice, and the term "rice" as used in the following description means threshed rice grain.
2. Prior Art
Various types of quick-cooking rice have been produced heretofore. By some processes the physical characteristics of the rice grains are altered, such as by fracturing them without disintegration in an effort to facilitate penetration of water into the interior of the grain for imbibation during final cooking. Such physical modification of rice grains detracts from the appearance of the rice, results in loss of nutrient values and is a comparatively expensive process to perform. Another proposal for preparation of quick-cooking rice is that the pregelatinization and expanded grain fixation, which process includes cooking rice at the factory to a condition of virtually complete gelatinization, followed by a drying operation by which a major portion of the imbibed water used for gelatinization is removed coupled with a puffing effect or an attempt to maintain the grains in expanded condition. The theory of such a pregelatinizing operation apparently is that after rice grains have once been expanded by gelatinization they will imbibe water more readily during the final cooking operation if the expanded condition produced can be retained. Such process requires the use of expensive equipment.
In preparing quick-cooking rice according to the invention of U.S. Pat. No. 3,879,566 the rice grains are not subjected to mechanical action to modify their physical structure. Neither is reliance placed on bloating the rice grains followed by drying them in a manner to retain their expanded condition so as to facilitate subsequent water imbibation during final cooking. Instead, that invention relies on molecular or internal structural modification of the rice grain chemical components accomplished by the use of chemicals and heat treatment to facilitate penetration of water into the rice grains to expedite imbibation of the water during preparation of the quick-cooking rice and also during its final cooking to palatable condition.